hey, so i’m back from spending a week in Shanghai. I got to see/experience one of the best Martial Arts masters I’ve ever met, visit a swordmaking village of yore, & spend some time in a City which will lead the world economically in a very short while.
…Simply incredible is Shanghai. 21M ppl, a horizon simply teeming with ultra-tall, ultra-modern skyscrapers which dwarf New Yorks’ both in height & architecture…. & more-impressively, multiple new skyscrapers under construction everywhere you look.
What’s even more impressive is what i must call the ‘civic attitude’ of the people. Sure you have the brusqueness of a hugely-overpopulated city, but you also have an entire populace concerned with ‘face’… which translates to just that bit more care, or ‘civility’ if you will, between everybody. For every crowd with teeming masses of ppl, I was never nudged, bonked, or simply brushed out of the way nearly as often as any trip down San Francisco’s Market Street during any daytime lunch rush. Er, well, except in the open-air market, where even other Chinese get accosted with “Rolex? Watch you like? DVD’s?”… but that’s just amusing, & a chance to practice wrist-grab counters. 
And the enthusiasm! Huge masses of ppl working long hours to drive this economic powerhouse, with apartment rates crowding $6k/ft^2 in the best areas (with no end of purchasers), & you start to get some sense of just how hot this area is… excited, highly-educated ppl, & incredible piles of $$. Everywhere you look are electronic signage, with top-quality video production values displaying top talent from Hollywood, on flat-screen plasma monitors of size & quality yet to hit the streets here.
But what made the strongest impression on me, was my return to the States, & the cold shock of culture-difference. Specifically, the uncivility of the ‘average American’. Nightlong train & bus-rides thru some of the interior of China never resulted in the loud, brusque, “I-know-everything” American conversations inflicted on everyone nearby, which greeted my very unwelcoming ears when I took my final connecting (domestic) flight. Or the absolutely unacceptable attitudes of the American “Home Security” personnel in Sea/Tac airport, who variously insulted the ppl going thru Customs, either by casually scattering their suitcase contents, to asking pointed questions like “why don’t you know what’s in your bag? Did your wife pack it for you? Oh, I see… do you know that she shouldn’t have packed that? Does she like you?” [direct quote, of only one of the interactions I witnessed]. It was a relief to realize the object of their tender ministrations barely understood 1 in 10 of their words… the loss of face the person was experiencing was terrible to witness. If this is how we treat rich Asian businessmen, how does this Country expect to compete? I tell you I passed thru several foreign Customs checkpoints, in both China & Japan, & never received any treatment even remotely resembling this disgrace… & if you know me, you know I was dressed in my standard scruffy drawstring pants, scuffed loafers, & crappy T-shirt… oh yeah, & did I mention I was shlepping a 4″ metal sword, sharp? The standout was being heckled by one particular Customs guy, gesturing at the sword, “where do you think you’re taking that? Where are you going? Where are you from?”… when the utter imbecile was holding both my boarding-pass, & passport stamped “USA”, right in his clueless hand. But hey! This couldn’t be happening, b/c we were all issued numbered “Comment Vouchers” complete with multiple-choice responses viz. “Were the Customs Reps uncivil?” & “Were you & your belongings treated with care?”… you just had to sign your name & address in order to make your ‘Comment’. Funny I saw nobody turn them in…
I wonder– If it’s a sense of unconscious entitlement that the average American holds, they better pull their collective heads outta their collective asses, & right quick. If it wasn’t the initiative, the intelligence, or the just plain MONEY of the Asians I met on this trip that managed to impress me, let me tell one last tale: I live in Silicon Valley, East-Bay San Francisco, arguably the ‘best connected’ place in USA. And damned if I can drive 25mi either North or South & not lose mobile connection at least 3 times during my trip. Well, travelling by bus to a small city in China, up & down a few mountain passes, behind me there was a lady chattering away on her cell-phone… nonstop. Don’t tell me about line-of-sight. Don’t try to tell me (for example) “‘well-connected Asia’ is a myth, limited to places like South Korea, which are tiny” & ” sure it’s easy to have full wireless coverage there; USA is much bigger”. Uh, no. China is frickin’ huge, I’m travelling to a town that still has mostly packed-earth streets, & the cell-phones are working JUST FINE.
Smart, enthusiastic, well-connected work-force… & millions of them at that.
USA is in BIG FAT TROUBLE.